Disney created a wall-climbing robot car that is the Mars rover we always wanted

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Not content to own the box office with Star Wars and Marvel, Disney also has a research arm that cooks up all kinds of bizzaro projects. The latest? A wall-climbing robot car that uses some unique design cues to defy gravity.

Dubbed VertiGo, the wall-climbing robot is capable of transitioning from the ground to the wall (and can also drive around and cruise vertically on a wall). So, how does it work? The robot has two tiltable propellers that provide thrust onto the wall, along with four wheels. One pair of wheels is steerable, and each propeller has two degrees of freedom for adjusting the direction of thrust.was created in collaboration between The robo-car was built by Disney Research Zurich and ETH.

Here’s how Disney described the technique:

The robot is able to move on a wall quickly and with agility. The use of propellers to provide thrust onto the wall ensures that the robot is able to traverse over indentations such as masonry. The choice of two propellers rather than one enables a floor-to-wall transition - thrust is applied both towards the wall using the rear propeller, and in an upward direction using the front propeller, resulting in a flip onto the wall.

Check out the VertiGo in action below and let us know what you think:

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Though this is obviously just a glorified (and very, very cool!) toy at this point, the technology behind VertiGo does introduce some fascinating ideas. Who knows? One of these little critters could be climbing the mountains of Mars in a few decades.